


and the steps we took made the journey

by Alyss_Penedo



Series: if i believed in destiny i'd have to hunt it down and punch it in the face [2]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Character Death, Drunkenness, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Kinda, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, oh look the angst finally caught up, still no shipping
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-19
Updated: 2019-03-20
Packaged: 2019-10-31 08:02:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,787
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17845556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alyss_Penedo/pseuds/Alyss_Penedo
Summary: destiny has written your end side-snippets.





	1. A chunk of silliness

**Author's Note:**

> Next chapter's fighting me, have this bit of ridiculousness instead. 
> 
> Fyi, this scene doesn't really fit anywhere in destiny has written your end, but I DO consider it canon to that AU.

Branwen's drinking out of a large glass bottle. There's two more on the floor beside him, one empty and one full--proof of the celebration the man's undergoing. Oscar makes the mistake of stealing a sip from one, and it is _foul._

'i did warn you.'

"Shut up."

He's pretty sure Branwen let him do it. He's also pretty sure the Huntsman is laughing at him inside, the jerk.

"Ah- and I foun' Ozpin!" Qrow cheers drunkenly. "N' got a kid away from Salem, thash- that'sh pretty sweet too."

Oscar interjects dryly. "You say that like you didn't ambush me, drag me into some alley, and wave your giant meat cleaver in my face before I could get a word in edgewise."

"It's not a _cleaver,"_ Ruby corrects earnestly. "It's a * _blah blah Oscar doesn't care*_ and it's _awesome,_ Oscar. Don't diss the scythe."

Oscar rolls his eyes. "I fight with a big stick and a knife--do I look like I know anything about mechashift weapons? Or weapons in general?"

"Oh right. Guess you probably didn't get much chance to learn, huh," Yang pipes up, chin propped on one fist. Ruby, meanwhile, has a gleam in her eye that rather disturbingly reminds Oscar of Dr. Watts.

It's the look of someone about to _educate_ him.

Oscar starts looking for escape routes, a beat too slow. Ozpin, the traitor, chuckles quietly.


	2. A bunch of arguments and a fight because why not

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the fight -and buildup to it- that was _supposed_ to be around the end of chapter seven (to add some humor to that ginormous angst-train and also give Ren his Bonding MomentTM), buuuuuut yeah I lost my patience with how slowly it was being written and just chopped it all out for later X) I'm still not _happy_ with it, mind you, but at this point I'm just spinning in place.  
> Fair warning, I have no idea how fights actually work, so that bit is entirely bullshit <3
> 
> Canon to the main fic!

“Food’s food, stop complaining,” Oscar says into his bowl of Pumpkin Pete's one morning.

Nora, sitting to his left, leans in a little. “Oshcar?” She asks around a mouthful of syrup and pancakes. “Who’yr talkin’ too?”

'-oes not constitute a balanced breakfast, not to mention the nutrition value alone-'

Oscar waves her off. “Ozpin.” Then he scowls down at his breakfast as his live-in nagger hits a particularly irritating note. "If I get you a mug of hot chocolate or something later, will you shut up and let me eat in peace?"

Nora swallows. "What's he saying?"

'you're trying to convince me to let you eat cereal by offering to consume _more_ sugar at a later time.' Ozpin sounds reluctantly amused. 'in no way does that address any of my concerns.'

"That wasn't a no." Turning to address Nora, Oscar answers, "He says I'm bribing him with unhealthy food to let me to eat more unhealthy food. I say it's working."

Someone on the other side of the table snickers--Ruby or Jaune, Oscar's not sure. He glares at them both over his cereal.

Twelve seconds later, Oscar slams his half-finished bowl down with a huff and stomps off to the kitchen to fix himself a "proper" meal. That same person (Ruby, shoot; Oscar can't get revenge on Ruby, Branwen will  _kill him)_ laughs outright as Oscar bangs pots and pans around with unnecessary force and snarls insults under his breath.

Ozpin is _really_ lucky he's already dead.

* * *

"Okay,  _now_ you're messing with me." Oscar frowns down at the history text Ozpin has been idly correcting for the past half-hour. "I might believe that you werethere, but why would anyone be that _stupid?"_

A sigh. 'again, your tendency to judge so hastily without all the information you-'

"Spare me the lecture, you must've said it a _dozen times_ already-"

'if you would  _listen_ then perhaps-'

"You shouldn't speak so loudly in a library," Ren chides from the doorway. Oscar blinks up the guy, argument derailed.

"Huh?" He belatedly processes the statement. "Why? There's no one else here."

He pointedly waves a hand at the rest of the room, filled with books and shelves and zero other people. Calling it a library is, in Oscar's opinion, a bit of a stretch; it's far too small. It strikes him more as a storeroom for the safehouse's books than a library like Salem's or Beacon's.

Ren evidently doesn't share this opinion. "Perhaps not, but it's a matter of respect. A library is a place of quiet contemplation and study; being disruptive in one is rather inappropriate."

“...Really? That’s a thing?” Oscar asks dubiously. "Oz, is he messing with me or is that actually a thing?"

'yes, Oscar. it is... "actually a thing," as you put it. though the circumstances where such etiquette applies may vary, of course.'

"....Huh." Oscar thinks about it for a moment, then shrugs. "Well, it's stupid."

Thus decided, Oscar promptly turns back to the book. Three sentences later, he and Ozpin are poking holes in each other's arguments again. From the corner of his eye, he watched Ren shake his head with a sigh and leave them to it.

* * *

"Like _hell_ hair-pulling isn't a valid combat strategy," Oscar snaps at thin air, before he ducks under a swipe. He uses the grip he has on Ren's hair to try to unbalance the older boy and drag his face low enough for a punch that won't leave Oscar overextended, but is forced to give it up in order to turn aside an open-handed strike. "If it _works-"_

Ren sweeps his feet out from under him, and Oscar turns the motion into a tackle. They roll across the floor, Oscar yelling all the while. "Well if he's just gonna _leave_ it thatlong then maybe _he's_  the one who needs to _learn something-"_

A week ago, a leg-sweep at that speed would have knocked him down outright. Oscar's no slouch at battle, but all the experience in the world doesn't make up for a faulty grasp of the basics--and they  _are_ the basics. With no weapons, the two of them are restricted to holds and throws and whatever strikes they can perform with their bodies.

And Ren is _kicking his ass_ with them. Oscar hasn't won a single match all week _._

It's _incredibly frustrating._

Lie Ren is a hard guy to put off his game. He's a bit like Ozpin, in Oscar's mind--lots of patience, high temper threshold. Oscar has tried taunting, and insults, and whatever unexpected game-changers he's allowed to use (of which he has far too little, because Ozpin is enforcing "tournament rules" like they actually mean anything in a real fight. Oscar is absolutely salty about this). The older boy is either indifferent or too skilled to fall for any of it.

So. Oscar's trying something different.

"-isn't how it _works--_ just because _you're_ following your own stupid rules-!"

"How many times is that now?" Jaune asks Nora, who's produced a large bucket of popcorn from _somewhere._ As long as she's sharing, Jaune's not going to ask.

"Eight, I think," she responds through a mouthful. "Second argumen' today."

"-and _SHUT UP I'M TRYING TO FIGHT,"_ Oscar snarls. Ren goes for an aggressive one-two combo that Oscar still hasn't figured out how to dodge entirely, and his next words come out a slight wheeze. "No, are you  _seriously_ trying to tell me that _right now_ -"

Oscar glances away from his opponent--a potentially fatal mistake in a real battle. His arms slip, ever so slightly, out of the fighting stance Ozpin's been drilling into him.

It isn't so much that he expects Ren to lose his temper over Oscar not taking a fight seriously. But he  _does_ expect the guy to try to punish him for any inattention.

Ren's fist comes exactly where Oscar expects it to--the gaping hole in his guard. Before all this, that wouldn't have been enough opening for Oscar to use; his opponent is fast and slippery, stance balanced, form perfect. But Oscar takes the hit -he knows very well how to take a hit- and pulls one of Ren's own moves on the older boy.

Shoulder to armpit, right leg braced between the two of Ren's, one hand grabbing the wrist and the other under the bicep, lower his own stance, body up and over. Ren finds himself flipped onto the ground and flat on his back. Before he can twist back to his feet, Oscar slams down on his torso and pins him.

Ren blinks in momentary befuddlement. Oscar grins down at him, sharp and thoroughly cheerful. "We're not _always_ arguing, you know," he comments, smug.

(Oh gods he really is turning into Ozpin. Oscar promptly wipes the smile off and pretends it never happened.)

Ren looks somewhere between unhappy and exasperated, but gamely accepts Oscar's offered hand and climbs to his feet. Nora yells something about cheating from the sidelines. Ruby cheers; Jaune scoffs; Branwen looks mildly entertained.

Ozpin speaks up for the first time since the fight started. 'well done.' Oscar twitches away from the compliment reflexively. 'however, i do believe you're rather missing the _point_ of this training.'

"Shut up, old man."

(Oh, he's smiling again. Oops.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk if that made sense, but Oscar basically staged an argument and faked inattention to feint Ren out. He wasn't ACTUALLY arguing with Ozpin over anything during that spar.
> 
> Not mentioned but still happening--after Ren finishes his daily gamut of kicking Oscar around for a while, he goes to meditate and build up his Aura reserves (or whatever it is he's doing in that one scene of Vol. 5) while Oscar rests and referees Jaune and Ruby's turn at punching each other.  
> Ozpin has plenty of pointers for them both, of course. But no way is Oscar gonna give up control for something non-vital like that.  
> Thus, while Jaune and Ruby have at it, Oscar's just sitting on the sidelines alternatively mocking them and (when Ozpin starts scolding him for his tone) monotoning advice at them XD
> 
> (...Also, no one fights Nora without a weapon in their hands. _No one.)_


	3. The AU's AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Um. Hi. Still alive.
> 
> (This is not canon. This is SO not canon, I cannot stress _enough_ how not-canon it is--look I have never managed to make myself _cry _thinking about the details of destiny has written your end ok.)__

When the explosions and tremors finally peter out into silence, Oscar crawls out of his hidey-hole. 

There's dust and rubble everywhere. Oscar's first, slightly hysterical thought is to wonder how long this mess is going to take him to clean up. Chunks of stone have fallen out of the ceiling, there are cracks in the floor--Oscar doesn't know how to fix that, Salem might grow angry with him for it,  _he needs to find her._

(He hopes the library's still in one piece. And Dr. Watt's lab, he supposes.)

The halls are silent when he ghosts through them, and that's nothing new but it still puts him impossibly further on edge. Salem's study is empty. The meeting room is empty. The training room is empty.

There's noise coming from the front entrance.

Oscar heads there, footsteps cat-soft. He cautiously peers through what's left of the doors.

The first thing he sees are the intruders, in various states of worn-down. A few of them are sprawled outright, bleeding. As Oscar watches, one of them pushes herself to her feet and starts limping over to another.

Ozpin's forces; Oscar a little surprised any of them are still alive.

The second thing he sees is the body.

_Is... is the battle not over yet? She should... she should be getting up any moment now, right? What's she trying to do?_

He stares, and stares, and still she doesn't move.

He collapses to his knees, gentle. The breath stills in his lungs. The world goes grey-soft at the edges, sounds muted.

The moment stretches.

It feels a little like he spends an eternity there, kneeling, waiting for her to give him some indication of what he should do--not quite daring to hope, not quite daring to dread.

She... doesn't. She doesn't, and she doesn't, and maybe... maybe she never will.

The Huntsmen pick themselves up, eventually. When Ozpin's agents notice him, he doesn't fight them. He just laughs, and laughs, and cries.

They drag him out of the ruins of his empty home, weaponless and in cuffs. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey so apparently the main story wasn't angsty enough to satisfy the relevant plunnies or something, so here have some EVEN MORE PAINFUL BULLSHIT *jazz hands*
> 
> (....I swear I wasn't this evil before I started writing this story)


End file.
